Welcome Back, Freaks
by William Logan
Summary: Set during "Mainstream," the New Mutants---Amara, Tabby, Roberto, Bobby, Ray, and Sam---return to Bayville High, only to find that things have changed very much for them. (Please R&R)


Disclaimer: X-Men: Evolution and all related names are trademarks of Marvel Entertainment, Inc.  
  
This story is set during "Mainstream." We saw how all of the older mutants of Xavier's Institute coped with their first day back at school, but the students of Bayville High must have been smart enough to figure out that anyone else at the institute was a mutant, right?  
  
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"Welcome Back, Freaks"  
By William Logan  
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Amara Aquilla hugged her schoolbooks close to her body as she shuffled slowly towards Bayville High. She had caught a ride with Scott, but several of the other students without cars had to take a bus that had been reserved just for the students at Xavier Institute. It had been said that the extra bus was for the safety of the mutants, given the amount of anti-mutant activity over the past few days. Of course, Amara knew the truth that the school board was more afraid for the safety of the "normal" students. She had lingered back a bit from the main group of X-Men, watching as they passed through the glaring crowd in front of the school.  
  
"Hey, girl," she heard a voice from behind her say. She turned and smiled at Tabby. Amara was glad that Tabby had come back to the Institute, she rather admired the other girl. She was fun to be around and wasn't afraid in the least to just be herself, no matter what anyone else thought.  
  
"Hey, Tabby," Amara replied, her voice cracking slightly, obviously a bit nervous about returning to school. Behind Tabby stood Roberto and Sam, both trying their best to look tough, although Amara was quite sure that they were just as scared as she was. Bobby and Ray came up behind, both looking like they were headed for their own funerals. Amara looked back, wondering where Rahne and Jubilee were, then remembered that their parents had taken them back to their hometowns, afraid for their children's safety after the mansion exploded.  
  
"Stick with me today, Amara, it doesn't look like we're going to get a very warm welcome," Tabby said, stepping beside the tan-skinned mutant and walking with her through the crowd.  
  
"Get outta here!"  
  
"We don't want any freaks in our school!"  
  
"Go find somewhere else to go, you freakin' muties!" Were among the less vile cries of the Bayville high schoolers.  
  
Amara bit her lip, choking back tears at the hurtful words. She wished that she could just disappear and run away from the crowd, back to the safety of the institute. No, she thought to herself, she had to be here today, on principle.  
  
"Ignore those losers, Amara," Tabby said, patting Amara on the shoulder, "they're just afraid of us." She noted the glares of the students that were shouting at them, "Just plain scared... and with good reason, too!" She shouted at the "normal" teens. Several of them scrambled back away from Tabby, tripping over their own feet. A hand came to rest on Tabby's shoulder.  
  
"Look, we don't need to start anything," Sam said, "remember, no using our powers today."  
  
"Easier said that done," Tabby replied, pushing Sam's hand off of her shoulder. She grabbed her discman out of her backpack and placed her headphones over her ears. In a few moments, the other students could hear a rather obnoxious pop girl band blaring out, and Tabby was drowning in the sound of her music rather than the cruel shouts of the high schoolers.  
  
"Man, I'd hate to be her eardrums," Bobby said, trying to ignore the crowd of teenagers as he walked through the front door of the school.  
  
"Nevermind that, how does she listen to that stuff, at any volume?" Roberto replied with a smirk.  
  
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Amara sat in the back right corner of Biology class, hiding behind her book until her teacher arrived. Beside her sat Tabby, putting candy red nail polish on.  
  
"Hey, you, mutie," a boy sitting next to Tabby said. She turned her head to glare at him.  
  
"I have a name, you know, Tom, and if I remember correctly, you used to call me by it," Tabby said.  
  
"Yeah, whatever... so, like, what's your power? Can you read my mind or shoot lasers out of your eyes?" Tom asked, a smirk on his face. Tabby just rolled her eyes.  
  
"You know how the soda machines around here are always blowing up and spilling their goods all over the floor?" She asked.  
  
"Yeah... so that was you?" He said, his eyes wide with surprise.  
  
"Yeah, so just imagine what would happen if I dropped one of my little time bombs down your pants if you keep bugging me," she said, turning her attention back to her nails, leaving Tom looking very pale. Amara softly giggled to herself, flipping through the pages of her Biology book.  
  
"Good morning students," she looked up, seeing Mrs. Troy standing up by the blackboard. Amara sat up a bit straighter, laying her book flat on her desk. "Today we will be studying mutations, what they are, what can cause them, and what the effects can be on the mutated organism." Tabby and Amara shared a glance, a considerable amount of shock on both of their faces. Amara sunk down in her seat, wishing she were invisible. "Now, can anyone in class tell me what a mutation is?" All eyes turned to the two girls in the back of class.  
  
"An abnormality in the cells of a living creature... which turns them into a loser freak," Tom piped up merrily from the back. Most of the students in the class laughed, except for Tabby and Amara.  
  
"That will be quite enough, Mister Fitzpatrick," Mrs. Troy said sternly. Tabby leaned over to Tom and whispered.  
  
"By your definition, that would make you a mutant, too, then," she smiled and turned her attention back to Mrs. Troy. Amara just sighed to herself. This was going to be a very long day.  
  
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"Jamie is so lucky that he's home schooled," Bobby muttered as he stuffed his books into his locker, "at least he doesn't have to deal with all this." He gestured at the various hate notes that had been slipped into his locker throughout the day. He crumpled them up in his hand and made a shot for a nearby trash can, sinking it perfectly.  
  
"Yeah," Roberto sighed, leaning against the lockers, "I had a date on Friday with Taina, but apparently her aunt came down with something, so she had to stay home to take care of her."  
  
"So, what's so suspicious about that," Bobby asked.  
  
"Taina's mom has an unmarried brother and her dad is an only child," he replied.  
  
"You know way too much about your girlfriends' families," Bobby chuckled.  
  
"And Rita's dad said that she can't go out with me on Saturday because he's afraid I'll use my mental powers and take advantage of her."  
  
"Little does he know you don't have any mental powers, mutant or otherwise."  
  
"Shut up, icepop," Roberto shoved Bobby backwards playfully. A young girl with blonde hair walked up to the pair and looked to Roberto.  
  
"I'm sorry, Roberto, we can't go out on Sunday..." she started to say.  
  
"Let me guess, Meg, your dad is afraid of what I might do to you with my powers... or your aunt came down with the flu, right? Why don't you just say that you don't want to be seen in public with a mutant," Roberto's voice grew bitter as he spoke.  
  
"Actually, no, that's not it at all. My grandma is coming down this weekend, and won't be leaving until Monday. I was going to say that we could go out next week on Friday or something, but forget it now. Maybe after you're over being so paranoid about me being a bigot like half the other people in the school," she huffed, storming off.  
  
"Wait, Megan, don't go..." Roberto slammed his fist against his locker door.  
  
"Oh, and the Player of Bayville High gets dumped again," Bobby said, imitating a sportscaster.  
  
"Go stick your tongue to the flagpole, popsicle," Roberto growled.  
  
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A few hours later, Sam and Ray entered the cafeteria, got what could almost be considered food from the lunchlady, and headed off to find a seat. They hadn't expected that last part to be such a difficult ordeal, but almost all of the occupants of the tables refused to let them sit by them. Eventually, though, they found the only empty table in the entire cafeteria and sat.  
  
"Been a great day, hasn't it?" Sam said as he stuffed a large chunk of mystery meat into his mouth.  
  
"Oh, yeah, it's been a complete blast," Ray muttered, leaning his chin against his hand, resting his elbow against the table as he pushed some rather pale looking peas around his plate.  
  
"Hey, take a look at that," Sam said, watching as Duncan Matthews approached the Brotherhood boys and pulled a few high-number bills out of his pocket. They had a brief conversation, Duncan handed Lance the money, then the boys parted company, Duncan heading over to the jock table, and the Brotherhood heading to go find a table to eat lunch at. "I wonder what that was all about." Ray shrugged, taking a few bites of food. They glanced back over to the rest of the cafeteria, seeing that the Brotherhood had started harassing a couple of students, the Blob rather obviously threatening bodily harm to one of the boys.  
  
"Come on, Sam, let's stop them," Ray said, jumping up from his chair.  
  
"I'm with you, man, just don't forget: you can't use your powers." The pair headed over to the Brotherhood, standing between them and their potential prey, a couple of nerdy teenage boys. "Can't y'all get through an entire day without causing problems?" Sam said, preparing himself for a fight.  
  
"Hey, it's what we live for, yo," Todd grinned.  
  
"Not like it's any concern of your X-Geeks'," Lance said, "this ain't your fight."  
  
"We just made it our fight," Ray said. Fred grabbed him by the collar, lifting him up off of the ground.  
  
"Maybe you should reconsider that, buddy. Your face is about to become the blue plate special!" Ray braced himself for the impact of Fred's fist, but it never came.  
  
"Come on, Freddy, they're not worth it," he heard Lance say. With a grunt, the obese mutant dropped Ray.  
  
"You're right, forget them," Fred muttered with a dismissive wave of his hand, although he looked very confused by what Lance had said. The three Brotherhood boys wandered off into their own corner of the cafeteria.  
  
"I wonder what made them change their minds," Ray said, rubbing at the back of his neck.  
  
"I think I know," Sam said, gesturing at the entrance to the cafeteria, where Kitty Pryde was now standing.  
  
"Ah, I see. Lance didn't want to look bad in front of Kitty," Ray said with a nod, "well, our mystery meat is getting cold, and lunch period is almost over." They headed back over to their table and finished their food just before the bell rang.  
  
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Later that evening, the New Mutants sat around the table in the makeshift dining room of the Xavier Institute, comparing their days at school.  
  
"So, Roberto, let me get this straight," Tabby said, "you had three dates for this weekend broken today? You poor little player!" She patted him on the head.  
  
"Shut up, Tabitha," he grumbled, folding his arms across his chest.  
  
"And Ray and I beat the Brotherhood single-handed! We didn't even have to use our powers," Sam bragged.  
  
"Yeah, the Blob had me in a death hold, but I managed to break free and twist his arm around until he cried uncle!" Ray said.  
  
"Really?" Jamie's eyes glowed excitedly, "you really roughed 'em up? I wish I could've seen that!"  
  
"Actually, that's not how I heard it," Bobby said, "I heard that Lance saw Kitty coming into the cafeteria and backed down so he wouldn't look bad in front of his sweetheart."  
  
"Yeah, well..." Ray said.  
  
"Busted," Amara giggled.  
  
"Well, I definitely realized something today, besides the fact that Sam and Ray are terrible liars," Roberto said, "I realized that school will never be the same again, if they even let us back after the meeting tonight." The other New Mutants nodded, agreeing fully with Roberto's revelation.  
  
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FIN 


End file.
